Robots to the rescue?

Abstract

The use of robots in disaster zones was developed in response to the Hanshin-Awajii Earthquake in Kobe, Japan and the attacks on the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in the United States. These events of the mid-1990s encouraged a number of researchers to think about the applications of robots for critical emergency crises. Since that time, search and rescue robots have been used to help the rescue crew efforts of the World Trade Center (2001). Unmanned ground vehicles helped with the rescue effort when terrorists crashed planes into the Twin Towers and around 3,000 people were killed.